Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum's A Day of Small Beginnings is a lovely meditation on religion, prejudice, and change. Spanning three generations and major world events, this work of approachable prose will make you think and touch your heart.
In 1906, the childless widow Friedl Alterman is but a year in her grave in the small town of Zokof, Poland. One night she is disturbed when a boy of 14 comes crashing into the cemetery. It is Itzak Lieber, known as "the Faithless One" because he refused help from the synagogue when his father left his family. Awakened, Friedl listens and hears something unexpected - Itzak praying with all his heart and soul for God to help him, his arms wrapped around her gravestone.
Friedl thinks God is answering her own prayers in finally giving her a child to watch over, and her soul flies from its resting place. Desperate to help Itzak, she leaves the cemetery and sees it blocked to her return. She follows him as he runs and helps him as much as she can, but when he moves beyond her sight, she is banished.
Itzak escapes to America and changes his name to Isaac. He marries, has children. His son Nathan, who changes his last name to Linden, becomes a constitutional scholar and has a daughter, Ellen, who is a dancer and choreographer. Both Nathan and Ellen are raised as atheists and know nothing of Isaac's past. They each get professional invitations to Poland, where they encounter Friedl and Rafael, a man who has dedicated his life to helping Friedl find peace.
This remarkable novel addresses the Holocaust without taking it on directly. Rosenbaum concentrates on the surrounding cultural climate in Poland, both before and long after the World Wars. Anti-semitism sets the story in motion, and the characters reactions to it form the major action of the book.
Article comments
1 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!